After.Work.Drink++

The Shamrock: local pub, right near the office, and fast becoming a staple post-work hangout. Justin mentioned going for a drink or two, but it ended up turning into a bar-hop evening.

Justin, people-watching. There’s a lot of activity near this place, as it’s right on the corner of Wells and Kinzie – especially at the end of the workday.

Double shots, Johnny Walker Red for Justin, Jim Beam for me. The folks here have great pitching arms.

I think that we (me, Justin, Ben) try to treat them right each time. Hopefully, they’ll remember us in the future.

Random over-the-shoulder shot by me. Only one drink into the evening so far.

We switch locals, and head over to Monk’s, a bar that’s near the Blue Line stop at Wells and Lake. Monk’s is right next door to the Indian restaurant (New Larosh) we frequent, and today is the first time I’ve been inside.

It’s a bit dark, but uncrowded at 7 PM in a way that makes me like it a great deal. Free peanuts for everyone, and the drinks were decently generous. Justin and I shot a game of pool, which was a lot of fun. Nothing too competitive – just messing around.

Protocol suggested that everyone throw their peanut carcasses on the floor. A very neat sensation, the likes of which I haven’t experienced since going to Larry’s (a great dive bar in Columbus, Ohio) in my grad school days. Every step had a satistfying crunch, and made all your movements seem more important than they really were.

Hahahaha. I don’t know what happened here, but Justin may hate me for posting this image. I think I caught him midway in some sort of "Unh, unh, yeah, yeah" dance.

This is a bar that he had gone to a few times, with an old friend. A bit fancier than I’m used to, and an alright place. The Hotel Allegro is not somewhere I’d actively seek out, but a place that I’d be fine stepping into.

A peek into the bar. A bit blurry, but it was dark inside and I didn’t feel like pulling a flash. At this point, I had started to get a bit blotchy, which sucked. The whole night, I didn’t really get much of a buzz going, so much as I drank alcohol consistently.

Unfortunate, but what can you do? I had a great, great time with Justin. We hung out and, while we talked about nerdy/tech/work shit, we got past it and fell into the types of conversations that I remember having with him in Bloomington/college.

On my way home, I was grinning like an idiot and felt wired in to the city where I live. I don’t know if this makes sense, but I felt included, that my motions were contributing to the great machinations of the city as a whole.

I had a really fun time hanging with Justin, and I look forward to us doing more of these after-work binges. I feel like if I hadn’t slowed down, we would have ended up slobbering drunk in a bar downtown, quarter to two in the morning.

But… I guess that’s something to save for next time. :)